Visual interfaces such as touch screens are available on most electronic devices, including mobile telephones with integrated personal digital assistant (PDA) features. The touch screens display graphics and text and enter commands to control the devices or to perform various other functions to execute operations on the device. Many screens, whether touch sensitive or not, automatically lock to prevent unintentional data entry.
However, when notifications about electronic mail messages or text messages are received by the device, the locked device prevents user interaction with the notifications until the user unlocks the device (e.g., after entering an unlock code). With existing systems, the user is unable to view, let alone interact with, the notifications with the device locked.